It is good that Babesia is being recognized by the mainstream press now, although I first discovered Babesia in the Hudson Valley, N. Y. over 15 years ago! Patients with resistant Lyme symptoms were coming in with night sweats, day sweats, chills, and occasionally "air hunger" and a cough, and I discovered the presence of Babesia microti. This article discusses a different strain of Babesia, known as Babesia divergens, which has been found primarily in Europe, and is known to cause a type of anemia, where the red blood cells burst apart (hemolytic anemia). This type of anemia is not common in patients that I see that are co-infected with Lyme and Babesia microti. I am now finding another strain of Babesia in my patients from the Northeast, known as Babesia WA-1/duncani, that is not mentioned in the article. Several years ago I reported at the International Lyme conference in Toronto that up to 19% of my patients with Babesia were testing positive through LabCorp for Babesia duncani. Standard tests for Babesia are not reliable (such as the Giemsa stain, IFA's, and PCR's), and testing only for one strain of Babesia, may miss other strains. This malaria type parasite frequently contributes to persistent illness in my Lyme patients, and should be considered in any patient with unexplained fever, sweats and chills where other etiologies have been ruled out (see page 68 of my book).
http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/05/23/its-tick-season-beware-this-new-tick-borne-parasite/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/05/23/its-tick-season-beware-this-new-tick-borne-parasite/
